Charges dropped against newspaper editor

Reporters Without Borders is relieved by the 30 April announcement that all charges have been dropped against Boukary Daou, editor of the privately-owned newspaper Le Républicain. He was arrested on 6 March after publishing an army officer’s open letter and was later freed on 2 April.

The media freedom organization nonetheless still deplores that fact that this journalist was detained arbitrarily for a month.

03.04.2013 - Newspaper editor released conditionally after four weeks

Reporters Without Borders hails Le Républicain editor Boukary Daou’s release yesterday after a month in detention, the final weeks of which he spent sharing a cell with 50 other detainees in Bamako’s main prison.

“An ordeal has ended for this journalist,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We are relieved to learn that he is out of prison and will not be detained during his trial, which is due to start on 16 April. Nonetheless, this release is only conditional and we urge the judicial authorities to drop the charges against him.”

After his arrest on 6 March in Bamako, Daou was held illegally for eight days at State Security headquarters before being transferred to the prison. He is charged with “inciting disobedience” and “publishing false news” for printing an army officer’s open letter on the newspaper’s front page.

Reporters Without Borders is outraged to learn that Boukary Daou, a newspaper editor who has been held since 6 March for publishing an army officer’s open letter, was finally charged yesterday with “inciting disobedience” and “publishing false news” and was transferred to Bamako’s main prison.

“Are journalists seen as enemies in Mali?” Reporters Without Borders asked. “Is reporting what is said by soldiers who are defending the people regarded as a highly reprehensible act deserving military and judicial punishment? How can Mali flout the law and democratic freedoms when it is fighting to reestablish them in the north?

“We urge the relevant authorities to demonstrate their commitment to freedom of information by immediately releasing Boukary Daou and dropping the charges against him. The Malian press must be given assurances that it will be protected by the institutions of the state, instead of having to see them as a new source of threats.”

The editor of Le Républicain, Daou was arrested at the newspaper’s headquarters in Bamako on 6 March, a few hours after publishing an army officer’s open letter calling on interim President Dioncounda Traoré to rescind the “benefits granted” to Capt. Amadou Sanogo, an army officer who led a military coup in March 2012.

Daou was held by State Security in degrading conditions for more than a week before being transferred to the Judicial Investigation Squad. The prosecutor’s office finally decided yesterday to charge him and keep him in custody. He is due to appear before a judge to answer to the charges on 16 April.

Daou’s illegal detention has outraged fellow journalists in Mali. Newspapers and radio stations suspended operations from 12 to 15 March and journalists are due to meet again to day to decide whether to resume the protest.